Prior to connecting a well to a production pipeline, a well test is performed where the well is produced and the production evaluated. The product collected from the well (e.g., crude oil and gas) must be disposed of. In certain instances, the product is separated and a portion of the product (e.g., substantially crude) is disposed of by burning using a surface well test burner system. For example, on an offshore drilling platform, the well test burner system is often mounted at the end of a boom that extends outward from the side of the platform. As the well is tested, the crude is piped out the boom to the well test burner system and burned. Well test burner systems are also sometimes used on land-based wells.
From an environmental standpoint, it is desirable to have efficient, complete combustion of the product with minimal smoke or oil fallout. The efficiency of the combustion is tied to the air-to-product ratio produced by burner nozzles of the well test burner system. Some well test burner systems have multiple burner nozzles, each sized to produce the proper air-to-product ratio at a specified product flow rate. Therefore, as the volume of product changes, the number of burner nozzles used in burning the product is adjusted by manually opening and closing air and well product supply valves to the burner system to turn burner nozzles or sets of burner nozzles on or off. To operate the system effectively, the production flow rate must be monitored and the number of burner nozzles used adjusted accordingly.
Like reference symbols in the various drawings indicate like elements.